Sir, I watched Dennis Johnson play basketball.
Dennis Johnson was a friend of mine.
Dennis Johnson was the NBA's second best guard from 1979-1986.
Adrian Dantley, you are no Dennis Johnson.
Dantley played for seven NBA teams during his 15-year career, scoring over 23,000 points, making six All-Star teams and leading the league in scoring twice. But he never felt that he got the respect he deserved.
Well, what did he ever do besides score to earn that respect?
Did he ever, oh, I don't know, win a Finals MVP award like Dennis Johnson did in 1979?
Speaking of the NBA Finals, did Dantley ever grab 18 rebounds in one game? 15?
Did Dantley ever block 7 shots in one game during the NBA Finals?
Oh I get it. Dantley never made it to the Finals, and it wasn't until the Detroit Pistons traded him away that they made it to the Finals themselves. Kind of odd that he made it to the Hall and the most famous thing he ever did was collide with a teammate and get knocked out of the 1987 championship series.
Did Dantley ever get credited with helping turnaround a championship series by shutting down the opponent's best player like DJ did in 1984?
Did Dantley ever play a lick of D, much less earn nine straight All-Defense honors?
Did he ever hit any big shots that won meaningful playoff games like DJ did over and over and over again?
Despite a career laced with such honors as Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and All-Star, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound small forward just could not stick with a team.
Maybe that's because all he did was score?
Now there's a concept.
Maybe Bob McAdoo will get inducted next year (followed by Dave Kingman in baseball).
+++
UPDATE:
Thanks to TK, Bob McAdoo is already in the hall.
Scoring, Scoring Scoring.
Best yet, he scored 18,000 points, just three thousand more than DJ, and he didn't play a lick of D either.
He's even more Dave Kingman than Adrian Dantley.
Give me a break!!!
10 comments:
Bob McAdoo was inducted into the hall of fame a long time ago, and I think he was better than AD and DJ.
Wow.
McAdoo is in the hall.
Even more pathetic!!!
How do these freaking journey men get into the hall????
How could one of the worst celtics ever make it into the hall?
A journeyman who finished his career in Europe.
Good lord.
If DJ was a one way player, that would be one thing.
But I still think he's one of the ten best celtics of all time, and he might be in my top 7.
In terms of hitting clutch shots, he's in my top 3.
How does the second best guard of his generation get overlooked when two journman scorers get in?
Wow.
That's all I can say.
Wow.
Hey TK,
I saw some Hakeem footage from his prime.
He's definitely ahead of Shaq on my list.
Walton is too, but I understand he's more debateable.
well DJ was in another league for me too, but McAdoo did a very nice job in Italy at the end of his career... this dont mean he deserve HOF more than DJ, just a small note
Shaq vs Hakeem is a tough one, I think that's one you can go either way on.
No offense to you McAdoo and Dantley fans.
But, as you can probably tell, DJ is one of my all time favorites. So it's hard for me to be objective.
I need to go back to the HOF official site and see who else has made it in while I wasn't paying attention.
I heard that Walton has made it his last goal of his life to get DJ in.
I need to research that, too.
pretty sure Dantley was on the '88 team that lost on the finals, they traded him midseason before winning the title the next year.
'88 was one of the best years ever until the Pistons were allowed to hack us to death in the ECF, that was when the NBA died, until being resurrected 20 years later
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